I live in Los Angeles, with my husband and two children. I blog about my former profession, which includes television scheduling, planning, and production. I have a degree in journalism from Cal Poly, San Luis Obispo, and a M.A. in history from Cal State Northridge. When I'm not blogging, or writing historical non-fiction, I'm chasing after my kids and....watching an unseemly amount of television.

Why Bill Nye Is Right To Warn Against Creationism

Today, Bill Nye announced his involvement with an educational platform company that is offering weekly iPad giveaways and a visit from the science guy himself.

A couple of days ago, Nye, most famously known as producer and host of PBS and syndication’s Bill Nye the Science Guy, made headlines when he declared that Creationism threatens U.S. science. To be more exact, he said that teaching creationism is detrimental to our childrens’ future:

‘If you want to deny evolution and live in your world that’s completely inconsistent with everything we observe in the universe, that’s fine. But don’t make your kids do it. Because we need them. We need scientifically literate voters and taxpayers for the future. We need engineers that can build stuff, solve problems.’

Check out his ‘Big Think’ YouTube video, which has received more than 4.6 million hits thus far:

As the parent of two small children, I couldn’t agree more. Spending time on Creationism is to pull valuable time away from learning the building blocks of evolution, namely mathematics, biology, chemistry, physiology – really, every discipline imaginable.

The Creation Museum in Kentucky has posted a YouTube response to Bill Nye’s pleadings. This response features some professors who hold traditional PhDs (Nye has several honorary). It also spends a lot of time refuting a throwaway line of Nye’s, about whether America is the leader in supporting creationist education.

I’m sure Nye would agree – as many others would – that of course there is creationist discussion in other countries. However, America is a technological and innovation leader. Therefore, having such a dichotomy in our educational system would be a bigger deal on the world stage. But I digress. Or at least, the museum does:

This response from intelligent design proponents also points out that the theory of evolution, and the idea that random events coincide with favorable selection, is something we could not have observed for millions of years (because we weren’t here, in case you missed that), therefore, it might not be so.

It stands to reason, then, that if we are to teach Creationism, and spend our tax dollars teaching our children something that throws us back three hundred years, we ought to get rid of all of our vaccines, because those were discovered by repeating thousands, if not millions, of generations of cells until a cure was found.

In fairness to those who espouse Creationism, it could be said that were put on this Earth 6,000 years ago with inherent knowledge that lets us move evolve scientifically from that point forward.

But there is that word again – ‘evolve.’

God says in the bible that we must be humble, and that only God has all the answers. So why should we assume that we would be allowed to understand our complex world in just a couple of sentences? Wouldn’t that be egotistical? Evolutionary science does not give us all the answers – it never will. But, it lets us strive for a more perfect world, and longer lives in which to explore this world.

It is a hell of a lot easier to point to a few lines of text in the Bible and say, ‘this is the way it is,’ than it is to learn basic chemistry, biology, geology, and ways of interpreting data. It is a cop out – a way of keeping people pliable for political groups.

So yes, it is convenient that Nye is stirring the pot while he’s promoting a new product. But thank God he’s stirring it.

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Could you somehow explain how believing in a deity creating the universe is somehow mutually exclusive with the study of “mathematics, biology, chemistry, physiology – really, every discipline imaginable”?

How the universe was created, either by a big bang or by God, in no way diminishes my desire to understand it (math/science…etc). The two are independent of each other…admittedly I used the term “mutually exclusive” when “independent” would be the more correct. Sorry about any confusion.

“It is a hell of a lot easier to point to a few lines of text in the Bible and say, ‘this is the way it is,’ than it is to learn basic chemistry, biology, geology, and ways of interpreting data. It is a cop out – a way of keeping people pliable for political groups.”

I question this assumption. Have you looked at the arguments against macroevolution? I suugest you look at http://www.reasons.org/?vm=r&s=1 and http://www.answersingenesis.org/?vm=r&s=1. The creationist argument is not just pointing at a few line of texts in the Bible. If this is the basis for your article, then your whole premise seriously fails.

“It is a hell of a lot easier to point to a few lines of text in the Bible and say, ‘this is the way it is,’ than it is to learn basic chemistry, biology, geology, and ways of interpreting data. It is a cop out – a way of keeping people pliable for political groups.”

I question this assumption. Have you looked at the arguments against macroevolution? I suggest you look at http://www.reasons.org/?vm=r&s=1 and http://www.answersingenesis.org/?vm=r&s=1. The creationist argument is not just pointing at a few line of texts in the Bible. If this is the basis for your article, then your whole premise seriously fails.

what about the hobo on the corner who screams about the end of the world? should we teach his viewpoint too? what about the Shinto? Sikhism? Rastafarianism? are those too small of groups? perhaps we should go with a group that has over a billion followers, Islam and Hinduism. This is not the first world, nor is it the first universe. There have been and will be many more worlds and universes than there are drops of water in the holy river Ganges.

we stick to the views that science backs up, not the views of a single religion.

Mr. Nye, for starters… REAL scientists do NOT make their primary living from a “publicly funded broadcast station” which makes your stupid “unidirectional hypothesis” extremely suspect to the government funded propaganda of Progressive views like global warming which has been debunked.

Additionally, a REAL scientist does NOT restrict their views, they are to be non-bias and open to ALL views as well as consider all in theory testing. What testing have you actually done in this area? Oh I see… none.

Lastly, PLEASE explain to us “the big bang” theory if “creationism is not a viable theory”? Again, a real scientist knows that both can exist and – as you say “based on observation” – both DO exist. 1st you have creation say the big bang. 2nd you have evolution of matter and life from that. And don’t give me the “2 elements existed at the big bang” crap… because observation again begs the question… where did helium and hydrogen come from?

Your narrow-minded view alone discredits you but when we add the other observations as describe herein, you sir are NOT a viable scientific spokesperson for the rest of us! Go back to putting helium in balloons and explaining expansion to kids, leave the real science to scientists!

Good for Bill. I’m tired of our views on/of religion. There MAY be a God, but a God that catered to just us? A singular world God sounds like a tyrant. The universe is forever expanding, and to say that our world is the only planet they decided to “create” us/life seems egotistical and close minded. There are billions upon billions of other galaxies out there. What makes us so special to be an anomaly in this universe? I’m not saying the aliens are coming, but to say there isn’t any life(most likely bacterial life forms) out there seems ridiculous to me. If it’s just us in this HUGE growing universe, thats a scary scary thought. So when humanity dies out, the universe is just going to sit in the dark lifeless? Thats even scarier. What would be the point? It’s like building a school for one student. We’re basically sheltering ourselves from what the universe really has in store for us. We can’t keep using religion as a shield to protect us from what the truth may be. Our minds are still evolving and we find new solutions to problems everyday, but back then, we were quicker to judge or just quick to fear because we didn’t understand it. Why would a God create earth and the universe around it, only to strike fear into them, and basically damn them if they pursue anything that would disprove his ideals/views. Why give us the ability to ask the question why? Or, any question for that matter, if we’re not to gain knowledge and advance? People in power use religion to fuel wars since the dawn of a sharpened stick, and because of that, it could have been twisted or interpreted to be used by them. But hey, times were hard back then, every day was a battle, whether it was war, disease or hunger, so i’m sure religion helped in that sense. I’m not saying it’s wrong to believe in God(it’s important to believe in something), but I think that its been around/used for so long that its basically brainwashed into our brain. We’re just now breaking the cycle/changing our point of view, and change can be scary because it could mean we lose what we’ve(you) believed in for so LONG. If we haven’t made any advancements in science EVER, and just followed religous beliefs, could you imagine how much war there would be in the world? It would be pointless, repetitive and destructive. As a whole, we humans are slow learners, and when someone shows up with radical idea that may disprove what you believe in, it shakes your world right to your bones. Religion wont disapear over night, its the generations to come that will have to overcome those hurdles. Now, im not saying religion should go away, I just think we need to search for the facts. I myself am borderline atheist(if you couldn’t tell), but I believe someone or something gave the UNIVERSE a kick start (big bang), but I dont believe in the bible. Sorry for the rant, some of it may be poorly written, but I just got done studying all night and am pretty damn tired. So I apologize if i seem to bounce around or use run on sentences.

Who am I: Just so you know I am NOT religious or I should say I do not associate to a single religion. I have for a large portion of my life sought out the meaning of life and God since I was about 9 years old. Tried a few out at that age then not again till later in life. Most recently I was a Mormon until I found my differences there. I do believe that religion in its own nature has a devastating effect (due primarily to man) to divide. All wars known to man derives from religion and that alone is enough for me to stay my distance but NOT give up some of the philosophy “personally”. All religions have something to offer when they are doing their job both socially and philosophically… period. It’s when they become full of themselves that they become dangerous like “tyrannical” governments – after all they are manipulating the masses as such right?

That aside I do think that humans are THE most unique creature for one simple reason – it is reason. We have self-awareness, reasoning and the gift of being individually unique. The chances of this happening in the context of all that has been is so astronomical that even Einstein couldn’t deny the fact of God.

So whatever created all that is including us is not something to be cynical of but to celebrate. We have lost our way as humans by one group equating us to no more than an animal. Other groups deny our uniqueness and God. All of them are right and wrong cause there is a balance of reasoning in the middle.

You say; “I’m not saying it’s wrong to believe in God(it’s important to believe in something), but I think that its been around/used for so long that its basically brainwashed into our brain.”

This is correct. Religion narrows the mindset. Humans have the tendency to view life thru a pin-hole because it makes what we innately know as complex simple. It’s easy and I do know some need this cause as I said, we are all individuals and unique, they just can’t handle complex thought – its scary and uncomfortable.

So my challenge is a lasting Einstein realization – God, science, creation AND evolution can all coexist right? They can all be factors – how can they not?